THE OHIO VALLEY-GREAT LAKES ETHNOHISTORY
ARCHIVES: THE MIAMI COLLECTION
It is noted that the following work from the Miami Archives should be read and
considered within the historical context in which it was composed and printed.
The opinions expressed and the language used do not reflect the opinions or
standards of the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, but are, rather,
indicative of thought in that historical moment during which the document was
published.
John Mercer to
George Mercer
(March 9, 1768)
(Due to length divided here into two parts)
Mercer, John in: Mulkearn, George
Mercer Papers, University of
Pittsburgh Press, 1954,
pp. 297-310.
he advanced. Shickallemo after thanking Onas for his mediation & encouraging him be strong in it, tells the Govr of Maryland that the Indians accepted the Invitation he had given them kindly being recommended by the Govr of Pennsylva which he would not have done if not satisfied of the Govr of Maryland's good Intention.- Yet thro all this Fraud & disguise the Indians coud not help discovering their true Cause of Complaint, they say. Brother Onas- The Dutchman on Schooniady (Juniata) claims a right tot the Land, merely because he gave a little Victuals to our Warriors who stand very often in need of it. This string of Wampum serves to take the Dutchman by the Arm & throw him over the big mountains within your borders (we the six nations) have given the R. Schooniady, for a hunting place to our Cousins the Delawares Indians & our Brethren Ye Shawanese, & we ourselves hunt there sometimes. We therefore desire you will immediately by force remove all those that live on the sd River of Schooniady.
Note. I think I remember a Proclamation of to this purpose but have not time to search for it, however I dont doubt that the Dutchman after paying Penn for his Land & submitting to the Contributions laid on him from time to time by the Indian Warriors was taken by the Arm & thrown over the big mountains, who perhaps not within Pen's borders. The Speech then rambles to the Ohio from thence to Shamokin & at last concludes with the Indians killed in Virginia [Weiser's] mediation in publick- but he has informed Us, that Shickallemos people prepared a handsome Indian dinner, after which Weiser gave them about six pounds of tobo to smoak & that by way of discourse on his asking Shickallemo why the Six nations had not come down to treat with the Govr of Maryland, he told him that till the Govr of Virginia washed off the blood & dressed the wound the six nations would not be reconciled to him, & he beleived there would be a war but Weiser might assure the Govr of Pennsylvania the Warriors woud not come through the inhabited part of Pennsylvania but direct their Course directly to Virginia over the Big Island in the North West Branch of Susquehanna.
You know the treaty at Albany when Lee & Beverley were Commissions was in the next year, 1744. In 1745 some very vague Entries, one of which was Patton's, were made for some Lands West of the great Mountains. The Ohio Campa was formed in 1748 the King sent in a present to the Indians, as had been usual when any of the Governments were about extending their Settlemts Westwd but as Virginia had no Concern in the Indian trade carried on upon the Ohio which by that time had been mostly engrossed by the Penn- (page 304) sylvanians, there was not a man in the Colony proper to be employed to go out to deliver it, so that they employed their old Plenipotentiary Weiser to deliver it & he as has been observed, betrayed them & delivered it in the name of Onas. In 1750 Gist went out to search the Land & to discover what Indians were settled there, the nature of their trade & to acquaint them that the King had sent them a large present of Goods which were safely arrived in Virga & to invite them to come and receive them. When he came to Loggs town Oct 25 he was told that Croghan & Montour were passed it a week before on an Embassy from Pennsylvania, & as he was there told that he was come to settle the Indians lands & would never go home again he was obliged to avail himself of his Acquaintance with Croghan & Montour, & told the people he wanted to see them having a message to deliver the Indians from the King by order of the President of Virginia & wrote to Croghan (Montour not being able to read) by one of the Traders people by this means he afterwards passed quietly & with less apprehensions from the Ohio Indians, than from the rascally Pennsylva traders, whom he rightly describes as a parcel of the most profligate wretches. He was everywhere rec'ed by the Indians in the kindest & most friendly manner. At the Shawane Town he says he was present at an extraordinary festival, of which he gives the following account.
In the Evening a proper officer made a publick proclamation that all the Indians marriages were dissolved, & a public feast was to be held for the three succeeding days after which the women (as their custom was) were again to choose their husbands. The next morning early the Indians breakfasted & after spent the day in dancing till the evening, when a plentiful feast was prepared, after feasting they spent the night in dancing.
The same way they spent the two next days, till the evening, the men dancing by themselves, and then the women in turns round fires and dancing in their manner in the form of the figure 8 about 60 or 70 of them at a time, the women the whole time they danced, sung a Song in their own Chorus of which was, I am not afraid of my husband. I will choose what man I please, singing those lines alternately.
The third day in the evening, the men, being about 100 in number danced in a long string following one another sometimes at length, at other times in a figure of 8 quite round the fort & in & out of the long house where they held their councils, the women standing together as the men danced by them, & as any of the women liked a man passing by, she stepped in & joined in the dance, taking hold of (page 305) the man's stroud, whom she chose, and then continued in the dance till the rest of the women stepped in & made their choice in the same manner. After which the dance ended & they all retired. A young woman was chosen to lead the dance each day and at the conclusion ten or twelve made choice of their former husbands. The whole was conducted with order, decency & good humour without the least quarrel confusion or disturbance. This festival is kept at the End of every Seven years, & was now held in the beginning of February 1751.
Gist went from thence to the Tawighti Town, being he says particularly
instructed by the President of Virginia to discover the Strength & numbers
of some Indian nations to the Westward who had lately revolted from the French.
This is the Eng. Tawighti Town as laid down in Evan's map, about a degree
distant nearly South from the Fr. Tawighti Town but you see Gists tract exactly
priced down in Evan's map & the distance mentioned in it prove that it was
taken exactly from Gist's Journal & I beleive it will be allowed that
except that I made off & sent to Mr Hanbury, Evan's map was the first that
ever appeared that coud give any tolerable Accot
of the Ohio. Gist gives the Countrey for a great Extent round the Tawighti town
the most extraordinary character & recommended it to the Ohio Compa to take up their Land there but It's
great distance the absolute necessity of securing a proper Communication with
it by securing strong Storehouses at convenient distances renderd that
impracticable till they could find what Encouragement we should meet both here
& at home. Instead of that we met every discouragement coud possibly be
flung in our way. You have in the Appendix as much of Gists two Journals as
concerns us, you will there find the 24th Feb. while Gist was present, four
French Indians came to declare war agt
the Tawightis, if they woud not return, but in this critical Situation Onas's
Ambassadors acted in his, & not the Kings name, enterd into a treaty, on
which I have already made ample remarks. The poor Tawightis, relying on Onas's
protection set the French at defiance, what Protection or Assistance did Onas
afford, the French next year made good their Threats & most inhumanly
massacred & destroyed them, which the Indians very properly & justly
made another Article of their Complaint in 1758 at Easton & at the same
time equally charge it against the Govr of Virga with this additional
aggravation. The Govr of Virga took care to settle on our Lands for his own
benefit, but when we wanted his Assistance agt the French, he disregarded us759.
______________________________________________
759 Thomas King, an Oneida, was the "speaker" who made this complaint. It is natural that Mercer thought this accusation against Virginia was unjust; for during those dark days of 1752, '53, and '54, both Virginia and the Ohio Company gave the Ohio Indians all the assistance possible. When Thomas Burney brought the appeal for assistance from the Twightwees to Governor Dinwiddie, Dinwiddie sent a message of assurance back to them immediately. Knowledge that the Six Nations considered themselves in authority over the western tribes caused Dinwiddie to refrain from giving them material aid until he had obtained approval from the Council at Onondaga (Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, IV, 84). Although this interpretation is not revealed in the minutes of the Virginia Executive Council nor in Andrew Montours report of the Six Nations' reaction to Virginia's overtures, the Virginians could scarcely have been unaware of the jealous manner in which the Onondaga Council guarded its authority over the Ohio and western Indians. According to the Executive Council minutes, Montour was sent to Onondaga in January, 1753, and again in June to invite the Six Nations to come to Winchester to receive a present from the King. Obviously, Virginia wished not only to obtain official sanction of the confirmation of the release of lands given by the Ohio Indians at Logstown in June, 1752, but also to obtain official sanction of a policy which was the antithesis of the "policy of neutrality" maintained by the Onondaga Council. Governor Hamilton did not send a message to Onondaga by Montour in February, for he wished "to know first how the Six Nations might receive the Governor of Virginia's invitation of them to a treaty at Winchester." (ibid., V, 607). However, in June Richard Peters entrusted Andrew Montour with a specific query directed to the Onondaga Council. The Colonies' hesitation in giving assistance to the Twightwees is epitomised in this query which was as follows: "Brethren of the Six Nations.- The French have invaded your Lands on the Ohio and are building Forts there. The Indians of your Nations settled there, with the Delawares and Shawonese, Twightwees and Owendats, are terrified and desire our assistance, which we are willing to afford them but want first to know in what manner You will desire We shall give them Assistance, and what You wou'd chuse We should do to prevent the Country and Them from falling into the Hands of (page 661) the French. We desire You will speak plainly and fully on this Head, not knowing what to do till we hear from You."- Ibid., 635-36. The Onondaga Council, anxious not to incur the displeasure of the French, answered both Virginia and Pennsylvania: "We thank you for the Notice you are pleased to take of those Young Men, and for your kind intentions towards them. They stand in need of your Advice, for they are a great way from Us. We, on behalf of all the Indians, our Men, Women, Children, entreat you will give them good Advice. . . We love the English and we love the French, and as you are at Peace with one another do not disturb one another; if you fall out make up your Matters among Yourselves . . . . If our Indians shou'd be struck it will be very kind to help them; it is better to help them than Us, for we are near New York and can be supplied easily from thence. Col. Johnson the Agent of that Government, has assured Us we may always have what we want there; We expect him amongst Us soon and can ask then for any thing for ourselves, but our young Men at Ohio must have their Supply from You. We, therefore, heartily thank you for your Regards to Us and our Hunters at Ohio, which we testify by a String of Wampum."- Ibid., 637.
772 New York (Colony) Treaties, A Treaty Between His Excellency, The Honourable George Clinton, Captain General and Governor in Chief of the Province of New-York, and of the Territories thereon depending in America . . . and the Six United Indian Nations, and other Indian Nations, depending on the Province of New-York; Held at Albany the months of August and September, 1746 (New York, James Parker, 1746).
Return
to TOC, p. 20
Continue
to next part of Miami Collection
[return to Miami
Collection Menu]
[return to Glenn A. Black
Laboratory of Archaeology List of Publications]
[return to Glenn A. Black
Laboratory of Archaeology Home]
Last updated: 19
February 2001
URL: http://www.gbl.indiana.edu/home.html
Comments: webmaster@www.gbl.indiana.edu
Copyright 1996, Glenn Black Laboratory of Archaeology and The Trustees of Indiana University